Super-resolution time delay estimation in multipath environments

The super-resolution time delay estimation in multipath environment is very important for many applications. Conventional super-resolution approaches can only deal with signals with wideband and flat spectra. In this paper, we propose a novel super-resolution time delay estimation method that can treat signals with narrowband spectra. In our method, the time delay estimation is first transformed into the frequency domain, in which the problem is converted into the parameter estimation of sinusoidal signals with lowpass envelopes. Then a MUSIC-type algorithm taking account of the envelope variation is applied to achieve the super-resolution estimation. Time delay estimation in active and passive systems are considered. Simulation results confirm that the proposed estimators provide better performance than the classical correlation approach and the conventional MUSIC algorithm for separating closely spaced signals with narrowband spectra.